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Monday, 19 December 2011

Google Fail: Account Suspended

Earlier today the Asteroids fell from the sky, the seas boiled and volcanoes in the thousands erupted as the World ended. Or so it felt when all my Google accounts were suspended!

Was there any hope of my blog being restored?

Slapped with fish. This is how account suspension feels.

My first instincts were that it was a Google account login problem. So I went to my email to find a solution. Gmail wouldn't log me in ! A connection problem then? Computer turned off , then on and back on the internet. 'Your account has been suspended for possible violations of terms of service'. At this stage Google had me very , very worried. Gametrender had been lovingly nurtured for over six months, numerous games contacts had been made and this of all days was a very special day as we'd just hit our highest amount of game hungry readers and it was only mid-day!

Miyamoto Gagged : Google Freedom of speech!

Trying to calm myself down I searched for my game site on the net, all the results came up as per normal, which eased my worry a little but when I went to access my blog a message came up saying that no such site existed! Google had wiped me out, erased me from the internet, I was gagged and voiceless-this is what it was like to live in a tyranny where freedom of speech didn't exist. The Middle East has risen this year through the power of Twitter and the internet and many been slapped straight down. Google was like these tyrannical governments , my account was gone like it never existed. Google analytics : Not there. Ad-Sense earnings: Wiped. Blog Followers: Gone and bewildered as to where Gametrender, their portal to gaming goodness, had disappeared to. All my devs, friends, contacts and sites that I spoke to through Gmail:Erased!6 Days before Christmas, Google had destroyed all my work

Christmas Ruined!

I emailed Google support and there was no answer. To complicate matters further I was abroad with no access to telephones so couldn't even find nor phone a Google helpline (I don't think there are any). So outraged and full of the creative fire normally poured into my blog I wasn't prepared to sit and wait and wait and hope that the Google Admin would eventually sort the problem I had to take action. I finally understood the biblical phrase of being cast into the darkness with wailing and gnashing of teeth, with all my accounts suspended that's just what I felt like.

Furious at account suspension

So I began a four hour campaign of pulling Google down and enlisting the world to join with my voice and roar like lions until my account was restored! For an hour I poured my blogless venom into twitter directing post after post at Google (@Gametrender -look up today's postings they're kind of crazy!)I emailed them repeatedly and turned to my Worpress Gaming Blog to spread my fury! I found everything I could on the net about Google policy and account suspension and must have left about 20 crazy comments on different sites that covered Google Account banning.And finally I was able to get through to a webpage that gave me access to a code that would reinstate my account, so turning fury to cunning I had them text the code to a friend in the UK who relayed the code back to me via Facebook. I put the code in almost weeping and shaking with nervousness, and my Google Account was restored like nothing had ever happened!
Lessons to be learned: The suspension never even came with a warning or even a follow up email to explain what had happened, my blog truly did disappear off of the internet with links to it redirecting to nothingness(that's over 300 gaming posts gone!), YOU SHOULD BACK UP YOUR BLOGGER BLOG!, Gmail and Google+ have still not got back to me via my second recovery email(crucial), without a contact with a phone I'd now be still locked out the site, I did source this site though which claims to be able to access text messages for phones on the internet , never did try them so can't vouch for them. But now blog restored, GAMETRENDER is back . Have a Merry Android and iPhone Christmas